Pulsar Presentation

1. Pulsar Presentation Team Hewish Andy Marx Jason Granstedt Jeremy Thorley Robbie Culbertson • Background • Pulsars are neutron stars that generally exhibit these qualities: • Their radius is approximately 10 km in size • They have mass equal to ~1.4 solar mass • Extremely dense, comparable to that of an atomic nucleus • Extremely rapid spin, can exceed rates of 700Hz • Extreme magnetic fields: 1x10^12 than that of the earth Known Pulsar J1311-1228 Below: Known Pulsar J0944-1354 Introduction During our dataset evaluation, our team found 3 previously Known Pulsars: J1903-0632 J0944-1354 J1311-1228 In the data below, there are two distinct pulses at the DMs of ~65 and ~75. From this, our group hypothesized that there are two pulsars emitting from this RA and DEC. Aim During the evaluation of pulsar J1903-0632’s single pulse plots we came across two pulses at two very different DMs. This suggests that there may be another pulsar in close vicinity to the known one. Using gridding, we hoped to isolate the two. We also wished to obtain 820 MHz data for the known pulsar, J1311-1228. Above: Known Pulsar J1903-0632 Results Our results came back inconclusive. Without the proper gridding coordinates, we did not see any other radio signals other than the pulses emitted by J1903-0632. Due to a miscalculation of the telescope, the declination was significantly off one of our other targets, J1311-1228, leading to only noise being detected. Finally, RFI plagued our last graph, a source given to us at the GBT, and we were unable to successfully draw any conclusions from it. Method Data for all three pulsars was originally discovered through the data collected from the GBT 350 MHz survey of the sky. After narrowing down our 15 datasets into the known pulsars and the potential candidate, the GBT telescope was used to perform a more thorough sweep of where the pulsars were believed to be with the 820 MHz receiver. Conclusion Unfortunately, without the capability to grid our segment of the sky we were unable to obtain conclusive information about the possibility of a pulsar behind J1903-0632. In the future, we hope that we will be able to grid this area and find conclusive evidence one way or another. We also desire to discover the source of the noise that was interfering with our last source in the GBT to avoid further RFI. New data of J1903 and the space around it. Cannot see evidence of Phantom Pulsar Acknowledgements NRAO Joe Swiggum Peter Gentile Sue Ann Heatherly The GBT.,